Osteoporosis

Anna Firth Excerpts

Thursday 26th October 2023 Commons Chamber

[Judith Cummins (Bradford South) (Lab)]

I am grateful for the opportunity to raise once again the importance of osteoporosis provisions and support. As many hon. Members know, I have campaigned on this issue for many years. Today’s debate is an important opportunity to highlight the deficiencies in support for a health condition that affects so many women and a large number of men in this country.

Historically, osteoporosis has been a condition shrouded in mystery. I have chaired the all-party parliamentary group on osteoporosis and bone health for some time now, along with Lord Black of Brentwood. Today’s debate coincides with our very first national media campaign on osteoporosis, co-ordinated by the APPG and the Royal Osteoporosis Society—the Better Bones campaign. I encourage all hon. Members to give their support to this important campaign.

Support for the Better Bones campaign has been staggering. It shows the public, professional and political demand for change, because nearly 250 parliamentarians, 44 charities, seven royal medical colleges, business leaders and trade unions are collectively calling on the Government to end the postcode lottery on access to crucial osteoporosis services in this country.

[Anna Firth (Southend West) (Con)]

The hon. Lady is making a critical speech on osteoporosis treatment and support, and on absolutely the right day as well, when her campaign goes national. Is she aware that one in three people over the age of 50 who break a hip die of that injury or related complications within a year? That is a terrifying statistic. A large proportion of those fractures are osteoporotic, so does she agree that prevention and screening are key? There is groundbreaking work going on in Southend. The fracture clinic at Southend Hospital, which I had the pleasure of visiting a couple of weeks ago, is to launch a new fracture liaison service next spring, with the support of Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board. It will be the first FLS screening service in the UK to offer consistent screening support across a whole region.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Sir Roger Gale)]

Order. If the hon. Lady wishes to make a speech, I think there may be time, but she is making an intervention.

--- Later in debate ---

[Anna Firth (Southend West) (Con)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Bradford South (Judith Cummins) on securing this debate. She has made a brilliant speech on a critical topic. As she brilliantly points out, osteoporotic fractures can be prevented and screening is the first step. If we could stop these breaks in the first place, not only would we save lives but we would save the NHS money and enable all our residents and constituents to live longer, healthier lives.

As I said earlier, the statistics are truly terrifying. One in three people over the age of 50 who break a hip go on to die of that injury within a year. We are talking about saving lives. The hon. Lady rightly mentioned that FLS is the start of this. The first FLS to roll out a consistent screening and prevention process across an entire trust will launch at Southend Hospital next spring. It is estimated that the service will prevent 550 fractures in mid and south Essex, saving the trust approaching half a million pounds and, critically, 1,300 bed spaces each year. If that were rolled out across the entire country, we would be looking at preventing 74,000 osteoporotic fractures, saving three quarters of a million bed days and hundreds of millions of pounds, to which the hon. Lady rightly referred.

The hon. Lady is right that this is the future of the NHS—we should be aiming at prevention—and that stopping women, in particular, suffering these osteoporotic fractures has to be done by rolling out FLS across the whole country. I hope the Minister will agree that other regions should follow Southend’s example. It is an exemplar and I thank him and the hon. Lady for giving me this opportunity to speak.